Carlos Sainz Jr felt it was impossible to challenge for points in the Italian Grand Prix after struggling to fifteenth on Sunday.
The Scuderia Toro Rosso driver did everything he could and maximised his performance at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, even if he was forced to switch from his pre-planned one-stop strategy to a two-stop mid-race.
“I think we tried everything we could today to make it into the points, but when you just don’t have the pace, it’s impossible,” said Sainz.
“We had decided to go for a one-stop strategy and at one point it looked possible, but in the end I was losing too much time so we had to pit for a second time… Not the ideal race, but all I can say is that we extracted the maximum out of the car today and in the end a P15 was the most we could achieve.”
Sainz was happier with how the car felt at Monza compared to Spa-Francorchamps a week ago, but is now looking forward to the slower, less power-dependant Singapore Grand Prix in two weeks time.
“Here the car behaved better than last week in Spa, so this is something positive for us – the last three races have been very tricky, racing at very power-dependent circuits, and this has made it very difficult to fight…” said Sainz.
“Hopefully in Singapore this situation changes a bit and we can get back to where we deserve to be.”
